What Does Leviticus 19:30 Mean in the King James?
Ye shall keep my sabbaths, and reverence my sanctuary: I am the LORD.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The verse joins sacred time and sacred space: the Sabbath is guarded cessation, and the sanctuary is a place set apart.
THE MEANING
Time can be held apart from endless use, and the sanctuary approached with awe; both are ways of recognizing what is set apart. The LORD’s name gathers them together: cessation in time and reverence in place.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the idea that sacredness belongs only to a place: time itself can be set apart and kept.
THE ROOT
שַׁבְּתֹתַי
shabbatotai
GROWS FROM
שבת
sh-b-t
Cease, stop, rest.
“sabbaths” in this verse is shabbatotai. The name Sabbath carries cessation within it: its holiness is lived as stopping, not merely as a calendar label. Paired with the command to keep, this makes cessation something guarded.
ALSO GROWS
shavat: Ceased, stopped, rested.
שָׁבַת
The verb exposes the stopping held inside the name of the Sabbath.
shabbaton: Sabbath rest, a complete rest.
שַׁבָּתוֹן
This related form shows the Sabbath as a defined interval of cessation.
תִּשְׁמֹרוּ
tishmeru
GROWS FROM
שמר
sh-m-r
Guard, keep watch over.
The word rendered “keep” also carries the sense of watching and guarding. The verse presents cessation as something protected, rather than time left open to endless use.
ALSO GROWS
shomer: Watcher, keeper.
שׁוֹמֵר
The watcher’s role brings attention and care into the command to keep the Sabbath.
mishmeret: Guard, charge, or watch.
מִשְׁמֶרֶת
This branch frames keeping as an entrusted responsibility, not mere possession.
מִקְדָּשִׁי
miqdashi
GROWS FROM
קדשׁ
q-d-sh
Be set apart; consecrate.
The sanctuary is named through the language of being set apart. Beside the Sabbath’s cessation, it reveals two forms of sacred boundary: a time held apart and a place set apart.
ALSO GROWS
qadosh: Set apart.
קָדוֹשׁ
This familiar branch names the quality carried by the sanctuary.
qiddesh: Set apart, consecrated.
קִדֵּשׁ
This verb shows the root as an act of setting something apart, which the sanctuary embodies.
THE PATTERN
The sacred is recognized by marking what is set apart: time, entrusted place, and a people named as God’s dwelling.
And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.Speak thou also unto the children of Israel, saying, Verily my sabbaths ye shall keep: for it is a sign between me and you throughout your generations; that ye may know that I am the LORD that doth sanctify you.Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?THE THREAD
And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.The verb rendered “keep” is תִּשְׁמֹרוּ (tishmeru), from שָׁמַר (shamar), the same root used for keeping the garden. The shared word opens the Sabbath command as watchful care for what has been entrusted.
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